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City’s jewel must retain its unique lustre

The possibility that about a dozen small traders may quit Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter in protest at high rents could easily be dismissed as inconsequential. Read

Eco-town may go through despite protests

After a slow start on the public relations front, developers behind a planned 6,000-home eco-town at Middle Quinton near Stratford-upon-Avon are beginning to see the necessity of being more open about the type of community they wish to build. Read

Past can give us a platform for the future

It is excellent news that Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery has received a £300,000 award to create a new gallery devoted to the city’s history. Read

End of school era as diplomas take a bow

It comes as something of a breath of fresh air to see an absence of the annual debate over grade inflation with this year’s GCSE results. Read

Celebrate the diploma differences

In some ways the new diploma to be introduced in the new academic year is a return to the past. Read

Weird and wonderful policies

It has come as no surprise that Conservatives have been falling over themselves to denounce a report calling for a major population shift from the North of England to London and the South. Read

Bank has to wait for its best chance

Independence for the Bank of England was seen as a masterstroke when Labour first came to power. Read

We’re the centre of attention - once again

The days when party conferences were solely for politicians and activists have come to an end. Read

Investment in city welcome in current climate

As the property crisis mutates and deepens, policymakers should be thinking hard about how to help get people out of this mess. Read

Plans to boost power of RDAs no cause for joy

The TaxPayers’ Alliance report into the performance of regional development agencies was always going to be a brutal condemnation of what is termed “wasteful bureaucratic excess by unaccountable quangos”. Given the TPA’s mission to act as self-appointed scrutineers of the finances, an investigation into RDAs would have been akin to hitting a barn door from five paces. Read

Behind veneer of crime and punishment

The Government says it is keen to promote enterprise, but helping criminals to profit from their activities is probably not what ministers had in mind when they promised to support British business. Read

There’s nothing Labour can do about its crisis

The what-to-do-about-Gordon problem will become much easier for Labour to solve once the party accepts there is almost certainly nothing it can do now to win the next General Election. No Government in history has recovered sufficiently from such disastrous opinion poll ratings, and by-election defeats on the scale of Crewe and Glasgow East, in time to win the confidence of voters at the polls – especially not when the economy is on the rocks. Read

Exactly what will the Tories do about poor?

It is always tempting for politicians to paint a bleaker picture of social decay than is really necessary in order to score points against their opponents. And it is a pity that shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Chris Grayling somewhat over-eggs his message today by suggesting that the gap between rich and poor in Birmingham is as bad now as it was in Victorian times. Read

Energy chiefs must keep their house in order

The Commons Trade and Industry Committee has just about steered clear of accusing six major energy companies of operating a cartel in respect of gas and electricity prices, although the MPs are making it clear they regard the marketplace as far from fair. In a worrying report published today, the committee says it has uncovered evidence that the big players are “abusing their market position” in order to prevent smaller companies from gaining a toe-hold in Britain, while in Europe Governments have conspired to make sure energy prices are lower for consumers and industry. Read

Now the brick's unlikely to stop at green belt

If a week in politics is a long time then a year must be an eternity, but it is now almost 12 months since West Midlands council leaders reluctantly offered Whitehall a compromise by agreeing to plan for 362,000 new homes to be built across the region by 2026. Read

A divided flock

If taken at face value, the suggestion by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham Vincent Nichols that Catholics across the West Midlands should pray for the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and for the success of the Lambeth conference must be seen as a positive intervention. Read

We need India to be a partner, not a challenge

The prediction that India is expected to become the second largest economy in the world is not new, but it is worth considering. Read

No complacency – and no exaggeration

Knife crime has been top of the agenda in recent days, for understandable reasons. Read

Restore our faith in pensions to control housing

The contradiction between Government housing policy and the reality on the ground has been clear for some time. Read

Home secretary cannot win the knives debate

If there is a sense of hopelessness about the Home Secretary's latest pronouncements on knife crime, that is because Jacqui Smith knows she is almost certainly on to a hiding to nothing no matter what she says or does. Read